A Normal Date!?
by Jennifer Wand
Summary: At the end of Vol. 28 of the manga, Tsukasa tells Tsukushi they should go to New York for a "normal date." What if they actually had gone?


  
a Normal Date...  
Margaret Elseworlds based on #20/2000  
----  
  
"New YORK!? As a DATE?!"  
  
If a swarm of bees had flown into Tsukushi's mouth at that   
moment, she never would have noticed. And there was room for them all,   
too. Her jaw had dropped low enough that it was practically scraping   
the sidewalk.   
But then again, what could she be but all gaping mouth and   
pie-plate eyes, when a curly-haired boy was waving two tickets to New   
York in front of her face-- NEW YORK! -- not Atami or even Yokohama   
mind you, NEW YORK! -- as though they were matinee movie tickets or   
lunch money, and insisting that they leave this instant!?  
Tsukasa pranced about the sidewalk like an excited puppy.   
"Isn't it a great idea?" he enthused. "I figure, there we can have a   
normal date."  
~And what on earth is normal about THAT?~ The thought rattled   
like pennies in a jar around her head. Tsukasa grabbed her hand and   
started pulling her, hopes and heels in high gear. Tsukushi tried in   
vain to dig her shoes into the pavement and stop him. "Doumyouji!"  
She looked up at him then, and his face was turned back to grin   
at her, even as he scrambled blindly in the other direction. His lips   
and cheeks were turned up - the excitement in them, and in those   
smiling eyes, was infectious. It was the childish laughing face of   
Tsukasa, the one that had brought tears to her eyes on more than one   
occasion. Somehow that weakened her resolve, or opened the door to a   
bevy of sensations she tried hard to ignore. But they were warm and   
fluttering, and they swayed through her like a hanging monk doll* in a   
strong breeze. Tsukushi felt a longing she knew from somewhere before   
- the desire, strong as a wave, to make him happy. And she couldn't   
help but smile.  
~Maybe this might be a good idea after all.~  
  
[*japanese "hanging monk doll" put in windows to ask for good weather]  
  
Tell that to her five hours into the plane ride.  
In front of them was a lawyer, chattering on his cell phone   
about stocks and bonds. Next to them, a chubby boy sat listening to a   
Walkman on full blast and popping potato chip crumbs periodically into   
Tsukasa's lap. Across the aisle a baby cried, and his mother soothed   
him in a tone barely less frustrated than her son's. "Doumyouji,"   
Tsukushi said in a low, all-too-even voice. "Just how long did you say   
this flight would take?" Tsukasa's only answer was a growl. Tsukushi   
prayed he didn't get as violent as she felt.  
She leaned over to look out the window. "Nothing but clouds   
and ocean," she sighed. "I ache all over. I think I'm going to die   
before we ever get to New York."  
"I know, I know," Tsukasa grumbled. "You call this first   
class? I can't even straighten my legs out. I'm going to get whoever   
built this plane fired." Tsukushi did her best to laugh, hoping she   
should force him to make light of the situation. But by the time she   
had gotten out a halfhearted chuckle, Tsukasa's expression had changed   
again. "Hey, Makino," he said in a lighthearted voice. "You want to   
watch a movie or something?"  
"A movie?" Tsukushi echoed, and then Tsukasa's hand flew out   
and touched something just in front of her. For the first time since   
they'd been aboard the plane, Tsukushi noticed that there was a   
rectangular square of screen on the back of the seat in front of her;   
that there was a console below it with several tiny buttons, and that   
Tsukasa's touching one made a picture flicker to life in grainy pixels   
of color.  
"There's a TV on the back of the chair?!" Tsukushi couldn't   
quite believe her eyes.  
Tsukasa was flipping through a magazine. "Channel 1's the   
movie channel," he read. "Channel 2, news, Channel 3, sports, Channel   
4, airline safety, Channel 5, in-flight relaxation." He laughed.   
"Relaxation? There's nothing to do BUT relax when you're in the air   
for a whole day!"  
"Channel one, movies," Tsukushi said, and gingerly reached   
forward to test the buttons herself. "Doumyouji, where's the sound?"  
"They give you headphones. Look in that pocket." He reached   
into his own seat pocket and pulled out a set, the plastic case   
crunching loudly in his hand.  
"I can't believe this," Tsukushi said bemusedly, pulling out a   
set and plugging it in where Tsukasa pointed. "A movie playing right   
in front of me..." She sat back and watched as the voices from the   
screen made their way into her ears.  
The movie was a silly one - something about a dance student   
being torn between the star of a show and its director - but with   
nothing better to do, Tsukushi allowed herself to get caught up in the   
story. She giggled at times, leaned forward intently at others, smiled   
at the screen when she thought something was admirable. Tsukasa   
watched her, watched the colors on the screen reflect against her round   
face. Pixelated blue glittered in the depths of her dark eyes.  
Tsukushi took a breath in when she felt Tsukasa's hand gingerly   
touch her shoulder, then withdraw in fear. She glanced up at him,   
pulse suddenly racing. Her face felt hot and red, but when her eyes   
met his, she nearly burst out laughing. He was watching her out of the   
corner of his eye, the edges of his mouth turned down seriously. And   
his face was beet red. He looked so tentative and nervous, like a   
highschooler about to make a pass for the first time in his life. A   
sort of rich delight flowed through Tsukushi at being the one to make   
him act that way. She smiled inwardly and leaned her head on his   
shoulder.  
Without even looking, she could tell his mouth had popped open   
and his blush had deepened further. After the initial shock, his arm   
came down to drape over her shoulders, and his head dropped to the side   
to rest on hers. The warmth of it was like pleasant wine to Tsukushi,   
and it wasn't long before sleep claimed her. She dozed, supported by   
Tsukasa's lanky frame, as they soared through the sky.  
  
It had been two sleepless nights in a row for Tsukushi. First,   
the eventful night in the Doumyouji mansion; then, a whirlwind search   
throughout the city for the sake of her friend. So when she finally   
slept, she slept well and dreamlessly. The gentle warmth of Tsukasa's   
presence surrounded her like a halo, keeping everything else out.   
Time, space, and all those other annoyances simply didn't matter. Her   
world was sleep and warmth.  
She awoke, finally, when that warmth transmuted itself into hot   
breath on her cheek. "Makino," Tsukasa whispered, his lips dangerously   
close to her skin. "Makino, wake up."  
Her eyelashes fluttered, and she gave a sleepy moan. "Makino,"   
Tsukasa repeated.  
Her hands reached up to rub her eyes. "What?" she slurred   
slowly. "What is it?"  
"We're here. Look."  
With eyes protesting loudly the influx of light, Tsukushi   
rolled sideways to peer out the window...  
...and was assaulted by gleaming silver buildings, bold and   
tall, towering spires catching the sun, a rich stretch of green in an   
island of metallic squares, darting ants of cars in a steady circle   
around and around, glistening blue ocean, looming brown land on the   
horizon, and a familiar looking green lady with a lamp standing in the   
middle of the ocean...  
The plane shook as it landed with the force of her "WOW!!!!!!"  
  
If the Statue of Liberty could have developed a sweatdrop of   
annoyance, the sheer weight of it would have toppled her right over   
into the ocean. The lady could have sworn she'd heard this   
conversation before, in just as jarring tones. But this time, the   
curly-haired boy was on the other end of it.   
"Why do I have to climb all the way up this thing?"  
"Shut up, you moron! It's your first time in New York so I   
took the trouble of bringing you all the way up here and what do you  
have to say to me? And stop stomping on the staircase, it's   
annoying."  
"It looked plenty nice from the ground! How come I have to   
kill myself going all the way up to the WHOAAAAAAAAAAAA...."  
  
And so things resonated throughout the Big Apple.  
  
"Aah, Doumyouji, don't cross the street without me, you're   
going to get run ovAAHHH! Help!"   
"You idiot, didn't you see the light was turning?"  
"It's your fault, I was trying to follow you and you went ahead  
without m... Oh, my GOD, that's the biggest TV screen I've ever seen   
in my LIFE!"  
  
"Doumyouji, look at that! How'd they all learn how to   
skate like that! All RIGHT! I want to try too!"  
"Moron, have you ever skated before?"  
"Have you? HUH? Well, have you?"  
"Right, I'll show you how it's done!"  
"Wh--what the hell? Let go of me, you...! Makino, I   
see you laughing!"  
"Even if I haven't skated before, at least I know you   
need skates!"  
  
"Doumyouji, what is that parade about? Is that   
guy wearing what I THINK he's wearing?"  
"Moron, don't look at that!"  
  
"Oh! Same Hair Man!"  
"Ah- yo!"  
"You know these people?"  
"Old friends of mine. Makino,   
check it out. You want to see me earn   
money?"  
"Earn money? Doumyouji, who   
are these-- oh, my god....   
D-Doumyouji... Doumyouji, don't DO   
that!!!!"  
"WAAA-O!"  
  
Tsukushi slurped contentedly on a towering cone of strawberry   
ice cream, leaned back on the unevenly painted bench. Her eyes darted   
about, glittering with delight at the squirrels, passing joggers, and   
all the varying colors and shades of this foreign rainbow of life. "I   
can't believe this," she murmured, as happy and relaxed as she had ever   
been. "Doumyouji, isn't this unbelievable?"  
"Yeah," muttered Tsukasa noncommitally. He didn't face her,   
but his eyes rolled slowly in her direction, lips curved in a slight,   
unreadable smile.  
"So do you know where we're going next, then?" Tsukushi popped   
the remainder of the cone into her mouth.  
The smile unmoving on his face, Tsukasa nodded. "Yeah," he   
said again.  
  
Tsukushi dug her heels into the pavement. "No! No, and I said   
no, so that means NO!"  
"Would you cut it out? People are looking!" Tsukasa tried,   
without much success, to pull Tsukushi along, but she would just not   
cooperate. "What would you prefer, to get right back on a plane   
tonight?"  
"I don't care!" Tsukushi shood her head back and forth in a   
continuous protest. "I'm not going to stay at some seedy hotel!"  
"You know," Tsukasa said in the deliberate, didactic tone he'd   
learned from his older sister, "a 'hotel'* means an inn. It doesn't   
mean all the dirty things you're thinking."  
"But- but-"  
Tsukasa rubbed his forehead with one crooked finger. Heaving a   
huge sigh, he bent down and got as close to Tsukushi's obstinately   
frowning face as he possibly could. Staring her right in the eye, he   
scowled. "Did I, or did I not, tell you that I would wait?" he   
growled.  
Tsukushi's eyes turned to blank dots and the anger reddening   
her face turned to purple embarrassment. Tsukasa grabbed her wrist and   
shuffled her inside.  
  
[* The word "hotel" has been adopted to Japanese... but it   
tends to exclusively mean the sort with the coin-operated beds.]  
  
The next thing Tsukushi knew, she was surrounded by gold and   
marble. It certainly wasn't a seedy hotel by any stretch of the   
imagination; on the contrary, everything glittered. Reflected in the   
huge mirror above a stately marble fireplace, Tsukushi's image seemed   
to her like a ragged scarecrow lost in the palace of Oz. Behind her,   
Tsukasa talked to a Japanese-speaking concierge.  
"I need two rooms," he said, and Tsukushi's world stopped   
turning.  
She whirled. "Doumyouji?" she said, loudly, her voice echoing   
in the pristine emptiness of the lobby. She clapped a hand over her   
mouth and walked up to him. "Why'd you do that?" she asked, tugging   
slightly on his arm. "I didn't think..."  
"You are a moron," Tsukasa said flatly.  
Tsukushi's eyes filled with fire. "What is that supposed to   
mean? Huh!?"  
There was a certain way Tsukasa sometimes looked at her that   
stopped Tsukushi in her tracks. It was with that look that he now   
turned to face her, and as always, she lost all her fight and fire and   
could do nothing but stare blankly at him. "Wh- what?" she stuttered.  
He looked at her like she was three thousand different kinds of   
stupid. "We're having a normal date," he said. "It's not normal to   
sleep in the same room on a date."  
There were no words for the feeling that swept over Tsukushi at   
that moment, nor for the whirlwind of thoughts that came whistling   
through her mind at hurricane speeds. The sheer simplicity of   
Tsukasa's statement, the tone in his voice that made it seem there   
could be nothing else to say - these were a kind of brilliance that   
befuddled her infinitely complex mind. What she thought was right, she   
muddled over, worried about, ran here and there trying to confirm or   
deny, and eventually found some level of truth that she could halfway   
believe in for the time being. But he knew what was right, without   
question, and that was fact in his world. This simplicity, that   
transformed itself by turns into idiocy or genius, always made her mind   
aware of a level of understanding she couldn't penetrate, try as she   
might. And she had no choice but to trust it.  
At the same time, something beyond thought or understanding   
welled up inside her. It was true feeling - an image of him as a true   
prince, as her true partner, as the one person in her life who prized   
her happiness above his own, the one person she knew she could depend   
on when she was storm-tossed and lost among the waves of her own   
existence. The feeling was need. She needed him. Desperately. In   
this far-away paradise where nothing stopped moving for an instant, she   
needed him.  
Her hands clutched the back of his shirt and tugged. As he   
gasped at the sudden movement, her lips parted and she spoke, the heat   
from her blush surely drifting high enough that he could breathe it in.   
"It's okay," she said.  
"It's okay."  
  
  
  
Tsukasa didn't know the phrase "Spare no expense," merely   
because he didn't know its opposite. The room he'd secured was huge,   
opulent, far too big and imposing for Tsukushi to feel at all   
comfortable in it. But Tsukasa treated it like a matter of course. He   
left his muddied boots on the thick Persian rug, tossed his jacket on   
the pearl-colored quilt draping across a too-wide bed, and stomped off   
toward the bathroom announcing he was taking a shower. Meanwhile,   
Tsukushi sat gingerly on the edge of a delicately uphoistered love   
seat, as though she might destroy it were she to let it support her   
whole weight.  
~What am I doing here?~  
Tsukushi looked around, trying to take in her situation. Huge,   
adorned room, bed and sofa and fireplace... tiles, rugs, Tsukasa's   
shoes... the sound of the shower hissing slightly from the other side   
of the room... a door between her and a whole other tiled, mirrored   
world, where Tsukasa's hair was flowing straight around his bare   
shoulders as the water beat on his back and his long legs... the steam   
bringing a flush to his face so intense she could almost feel it...  
only that wasn't the steam, that was her blush, and the image   
she had in her head at that moment was...  
"WHA... WHAT am I THINKING!?" Tsukushi forgot her earlier   
timidity and banged her head several times against the arm of the sofa.   
When the image had been successfully knocked out of her mind, she sat   
back, panting, her hands curled into frustrated fists. Sick with   
self-loathing, she berated herself for ever thinking about it in the   
first place.  
~It's his fault... he's always thinking nasty things, and it   
spills over into me!~   
Her face relaxed slightly, her blush fading, but resolution   
lifting her cheekbones.  
~I guess....~   
~I guess I am going to have to say something after all. I'm   
sure he misunderstood me. I'm going to need to clear things up.~  
  
As if on cue, the hiss of the shower stopped, and a few minutes   
later, the door handle rattled. Tsukushi bolted up from her sitting   
position, and took a huge breath. As the door opened, she shouted in   
an unstoppable voice, "Um, you KNOW..."  
"What?" said a very wet and half-naked Tsukasa.  
Tsukushi lost her words and just gaped, open-mouthed. Tsukasa   
had a towel in one hand and was squeezing water out of his long,   
tangled hair, which tumbled to his shoulders in loose waves. He was   
wrapped in a huge, nearly blindingly white robe, and his skin glistened   
where it parted to reveal the long columns of his legs or his   
dewdrop-studded chest. His eyes, somehow darker than usual against the   
pristine paleness of his skin and the ivory robe, caught hers. "What?"   
he repeated.  
"I... I..." Tsukushi knew her face was a talking tomato at this   
point, but she couldn't do a thing about it. Her brain refused to work   
with her, and her jaw flapped open and shut a few more times. Tsukasa   
started walking toward the bed, and against her will, Tsukushi's feet   
began to move too. "I'm going in the shower next," she heard herself   
say. The bathroom door moved steadily, obstinately, closer.   
"Okay," Tsukasa said from behind her - he was behind her, now,   
and she was nearly through the bathroom doorway. She cursed herself   
silently and brought a fist to her forehead in frustration.  
~This is no good...~  
"Makino," came suddenly from behind her, in a serious tone.  
She turned. "Huh?"  
The first thing she was aware of was the beauty of his pose...   
sitting, legs just slightly parted, on the bed, leaning back as his   
robe hung loosely off his shoulders. His hair darted in and out on the   
surface of the fabric. There was something stark and severe about the   
black-and-white scene, like he was a character in an old movie. Not   
altogether real. She swallowed.  
"I heard what my sister said," he said. "She had a point. And   
I told you I'd wait. So relax, would you?"  
The words hit Tsukushi like blows. She winced.  
~He can read me that well...~  
Her eyes lowered, and she sighed. "I'm sorry," she said. She   
advanced a few paces toward him. "It must be kind of hard for you."  
He blushed and then puffed out his cheeks in an overwrought   
imitation of nonchalant machismo. "Nah," he said loudly, avoiding   
meeting her gaze, "it's not that hard, not really."  
"I'm glad." Tsukushi smiled genuinely. "Well, I'm going into   
the shower now." She turned on her heel and walked confidently through   
the doorway.  
  
The hot water felt good, and the hotel's shampoo seemed to   
cleanse right through her hair to her mind. Tsukushi could smell the   
slight scent of fruit as she combed through it afterward. There was   
another huge terry cloth bathrobe hanging on the door, and she slipped   
into it. It was just scratchy enough against her skin, rubbing it raw   
and pink. Gripping the robe tightly around her to shield against the   
inevitable influx of cold, she turned the brass handle of the bathroom   
door.  
Instead, she was surrounded by a sudden rush of warmth, as a   
figure moving faster than she could see leapt from the wall next to her   
and held her fast. Tsukasa's one arm was wrapped around her waist, the   
other her shoulder. His breath was ragged, hot, against her ear, the   
movements of her lips nearly a kiss as he spoke.   
"Don't get me wrong," he whispered. "Don't think I don't want   
to."  
Tsukushi was frozen with fire and fear. Her lips trembled.   
Thin whistles of breath made their way out in quick succession. She   
could feel her hair hanging on her neck, tiny sweatbeads clinging to   
the individual strands. A million miniscule, specific sensations   
blossomed beneath the canopy of warmth that was Tsukasa's embrace. And   
still his breath fell hot and rhythmic on her cheek, and she could do   
nothing but swallow and wait.  
"I want you, Makino," he said hotly. "Don't forget that."  
The admission was so blunt, so startling, that Tsukushi forgot   
to breathe. The situation came rushing into her consciousness... they   
were alone, SO alone, with no thought of any interruption. An ocean   
away from anyone or anything else but each other.  
His arms loosened around her shoulders, and he took a half-step   
back, his hands trailing down her arms to hold her own hands lightly.   
When he spoke again, his voice was calmer, less charged, but still   
earnest. "At least... can we fall asleep together tonight?"  
She couldn't move. He'd said as much before, of course, but to   
beg her permission like that - it threw her, and her words failed her.   
To her, that pleading in his voice was frightening. Could he sound so   
sincere, so tentative, without meaning something beyond what he said? Could she believe in him right now?  
And still, without even looking at him, she knew what his face   
must look like. The gentle pleading in his eyes, the desire and   
resolve in his firmly set jaw... the way the dim light must have been   
illuminating his features. As though that was a part of him too. And   
there was no way she couldn't believe in that face. There was no way   
she could refuse it, either...  
But before she could draw breath to say whatever it was she'd   
decided to say, the warmth of his hands slipped away and left her palms   
cold. She winced. "I understand," he said under his breath. "Okay."  
And without turning to look at her, he walked past her, leaving her   
behind.  
"Ah - Doumyouji!" she blurted out.  
He turned, and in his shadowed face she saw a million  
disappointments. "What?" he asked, in such a morose tone of voice   
that she forgot whatever she had originally wanted to say.  
"Uh..." She stammered, and when she later realized what had   
come out of her mouth at that time, she nearly collapsed in shame.   
"Y-you take the bed, okay? You're the one who's paying for the room   
and all, so you should have it..."  
He cracked a half-hearted grin. "Of course, moron," he said.   
"That goes without saying."  
  
Minutes passed, the lights went off, and Tsukushi lay covered   
in a white blanket on a huge sofa with cloudlike cushions. It was   
comfortable, but she couldn't sleep. Her mind felt like a racetrack, a   
huge often-traveled loop that she'd been along so many times but still   
not mastered. Time and time again, she returned to this place of   
uneasiness. No matter how honest she tried to be, how directly she   
tried to face her feelings, she somehow always ended up as she was now.   
In the dark, separated from him, wondering how she'd managed to hurt   
him again.  
He'd done so much for her. Again and again. And he'd shown   
his love in so many millions of ways... saving her... talking to her...   
holding her... and even their uglier, cruder counterparts at times.   
But each of the myriad puzzle pieces easily adding up to the one   
immutable truth of his feelings. And in return, what had she done?  
~I fell in love with him. Isn't that enough?~  
Her mind replayed a million moments when she hadn't been able   
to say how she felt... embarrassing awkward silences... horrific   
misunderstandings... and still, still haunting her, no matter how long   
ago it had been, the biggest lie of all, a rainy night where she'd run   
away, the declaration that she didn't love him hanging in the air   
between them, but the knowledge finally ringing ever-louder in her   
ears...  
~time again, and time again, and time again, I've felt that I   
loved you...~  
Tsukushi squeezed her eyes shut as emotion filled her again.   
She still felt as though she relived those moments every time she   
thought about them. How would she ever put that into the past?  
  
~Maybe... just falling in love with him wasn't enough...~  
  
~I have to trust him, too.~  
Something huge and bold inside Tsukushi emerged and grew to   
fullness, like a blossom or a huge fruit.   
~I have to make him know...~  
She made a fist and a decision. And she started to move.  
  
Tsukasa heard dimly the rustling of the sheets in his muddled   
haze between sleeping and waking. Perhaps it was her, on that couch   
near the foot of the bed. Then again, perhaps he was moving and didn't   
realize it. He groaned in sleepy confusion.   
That was when he sensed a sharp movement near him - a quick   
withdrawal of some sort. His eyes blinked open and he tried to   
identify its source without having to move. Slowly, like a gently   
opening door letting in the light, he became aware that there was   
another presence, very near him. Coming nearer in small but determined   
movements. A shadow began to fall across him.  
And then the entire world trembled and collapsed into the   
single sensation of a hand on his shoulder.   
Sparkles of yellow and gold seemed to fly through him as that   
hand slid down, across his chest, onto the bed in front of him, and a   
warm mouth began to breathe near his ear. The warmth of a woman's body   
behind his, knees bent slightly into his, chest just barely brushing   
his back in the most maddening of ways. And then the voice in his ear.   
That voice had to be heaven itself.  
"Falling asleep together... that's okay with me."  
  
Tsukushi felt Tsukasa stir, and she watched him carefully even   
in the dark. His body was warm, addictively so, and she found herself   
selfishly wanting nothing more than to be in his embrace. He turned   
over, and their dark eyes caught each other. Not a word was spoken as   
they lay side by side on the huge white bed... but the communication   
between them was so intense it was like a brilliant light in the   
darkness.  
His hands cradled her face tentatively, asking her a silent   
question. Her cheeks were hot, but so was her breath, and she couldn't   
help but smile in surprise at her own boldness - and the sweet desire   
that flew through her in a million unnamable colors. He drew her lips   
in to his and kissed her hungrily. Her arms wound around his neck.  
Cool sheets felt glorious against her still-wet hair and her   
flushed skin, and soon she was trapped between that coolness and his   
unbearable warmth, seeping into her from above as his mouth locked onto   
hers. She felt as though he was both feeding her and feeding on her.   
Taking and giving incredible warmth, incredible sensation. Filled with   
light, she held him tight, kissed him as well as she knew how, her eyes   
closed against everything in the world that wasn't part of this one   
intense embrace.   
His lips lingered over hers, teasing her with tiny kisses and   
finally easing his hold on her with gentle goodbyes, fluttering touches   
of his mouth on hers. As her eyes opened to see him looking down at   
her, her lips were still pursed, warm and wet, and so inviting he had   
to bite his own lip to keep from returning to her. Her eyes widened   
until they looked almost inhumanly big, like sweet pools of chocolate   
glistening in the darkness.  
"Let me guess," he said in a voice that broke several times,   
hovering awkwardly between soft speech and whisper. "Still 'not yet,'   
right?"  
"Sorry." Her voice, unlike his, was clear and soft in the   
darkness.  
"I understand," he said. Earlier, he'd used the same words.   
But now, there was no regret, just passion and a sort of respect she   
wasn't sure how to identify. Maybe it was in sleep that the answer   
came to her; maybe it never came at all, and she misunderstood him yet   
again. But somehow, at some point, Tsukushi was sure that was the   
voice of a man addressing someone or something he truly cherished. She   
felt a smile simmering within her into a pool of sunshine that flowed   
through her whole self.  
He kissed her, settled behind her, and wrapped his arms around   
her. Tsukushi melted into his arms, felt her whole body dissolving   
into liquid. Then the world faded too, and she slept. Sleep neither   
blessed with dreams nor plagued with nightmares, but wrapped in a   
constant sense of warmth that she was conscious of even in   
unconsciousness. She felt like a baby returning to her mother's arms;   
like someone who'd finally found their way home. It felt natural...   
even normal. The sort of thing she'd been meant to find all her life.  
  
So, in a hotel in New York, in the arms of Doumyouji Tsukasa,   
Makino Tsukushi slept better then she ever had. And whenever morning   
came, and whatever came with it...  
...well. That's the next story. For now, fade to black.  
  
-fin for now-  



End file.
